How to Use Google’s New A.I.-Powered Photos Collages

Autonomously edits together themed videos.

On Wednesday, Google Photos released a new feature that lets users share slide shows of their favorite photos ahead of Valentine’s Day. The app uses machine learning to select images based on the type of video you want to make, edits them together, and sets them to music.

The ability to directly create movies from pictures has been a part of the Google Photos for sometime now. But this is the first time the app has given users options to create themed clips.

Here’s how to quickly put together a touching video for your significant other, family, or even your cat.

If you’re an avid Google Photos app users, open the app, navigate to the Assistant Tab, and tap Movie to get going. If you don’t have the app on your smartphone, no worries, you can access the feature on desktop by heading over to the Google Photos website.

All of the video themes available on Google Photos.

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Here’s where the fun beings. There are nine themes you can pick from these include: “Valentine’s Day Movie” for that special someone; “Selfie Movie”, if you’re constantly striking a pose; “Meow Movie,” if your cat is everything to you; as well as a few more.

Before you select any of these make sure you have a good amount of images in your Google Photos drive. If you only have a handful you’ll get a “Unable to create movie” message. Try uploading more pictures of your cat and waiting a minute if this keeps popping up.

If you have plenty of photos to work with, Google will use its face grouping feature to pluck pictures from your library based on similar faces. Once the A.I. has selected appropriate photos it strings them all together and adds in background music according to the theme.

A sample Valentine's Day video.

You can then essentially airdrop the new video to your friends and family. Simply set up a “Partner Account” on the Assistant page to create a shared library with whoever you’d like.

If you’re not the biggest fan of how the autonomously edited video came out, Google Photos offers basic editing features on Android and iOS. So you can tweak the background music or change how fast it cycles through your photos.

We hope you’re ready for montages of embarrassing family photos.

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